Is Medicare paying too much for dialysis drugs?
Independent dialysis facilities are getting paid by Medicare for darbepoetin alfa (Aranesp, Amgen) and other new end-stage renal disease drugs more than what they are paying to acquire them. That's the conclusion of a new report from the Office of Inspector General.
Is Medicare paying too much for dialysis drugs?
Independent dialysis facilities are getting paid by Medicare for darbepoetin alfa (Aranesp, Amgen) and other new end-stage renal disease drugs more than what they are paying to acquire them. That's the conclusion of a new report from the Office of Inspector General. Required by the Medicare Modernization Act, the report found that the average acquisition cost for the darbepoetin alfa was $2.59 per mcg in 2005, while Medicare reimbursement ranged from a high of $3.54 per mcg in the first quarter to a low of $3.01 per mcg in the fourth quarter. OIG based its conclusions on a survey sent to 55 facilities, 46 of which responded. There's no indication of whether CMS plans to lower its reimbursement to facilities based on these findings.
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Podcast: Discussing the Shared Central Fulfillment Solution with iA
May 6th 2024Brian Nowosielski, associate editor with Drug Topics, sat down with Tom Utech and Reed Richardson of iA, an innovative pharmacy fulfillment company. Utech, CEO of iA, and Richardson, Chief Commercial Officer of iA, discussed the company's new shared central fulfillment solution. The new solution, designed to streamline processes within the pharmacy, is a technological innovation with life-saving benefits for patients.
